Certification Update:

"...the increased behavior-analytic coursework and fieldwork requirements would likely lessen the importance of the differences in educational histories of applicants with graduate degrees in fields outside of education, psychology, and behavior analysis. This consideration, along with the secondary benefits of having more certificants with diverse training backgrounds and connections to other professional communities, led the committee to determine that more flexibility in the field-of-study requirement would be valuable at this time."

New BCBA Degree Requirements

"The committee first considered the level of the BCBA degree requirement (currently a master’s degree or higher from an accredited institution). Consensus was quickly reached that the current degree level requirement should remain unchanged.
The committee then discussed the current field-of-study requirements(i.e., behavior analysis, education, psychology) in the context of other eligibility requirement changes that were announced in 2017. For example, the committee noted that the new coursework requirements (i.e., 315 hours of graduate-level instruction) are close to the academic requirements of many master’s programs and the new supervised.f
Fieldwork requirements (i.e., 2,000 supervised fieldwork hours or 1,500 concentrated supervised fieldwork hours) are comparable to similar requirements in other professions. In this context, and after reviewing data indicating that there are only a few dozen degree-granting programs in behavior analysis, the committee recommended that the field of study not be further restricted at this time. However, given these considerations, and that any new degree requirements would be implemented in conjunction with the other new eligibility requirements in 2022, the committee discussed the value of an unrestricted field-of-study requirement. For example, the increased behavior-analytic coursework and fieldwork requirements would likely lessen the importance of the differences in educational histories of applicants with graduate degrees in fields outside of education, psychology, and behavior analysis. This consideration, along with the secondary benefits of having more certificants with diverse training backgrounds and connections to other professional communities, led the committee to determine that more flexibility in the field-of-study requirement would be valuable at this time.